Heretofor, the apparatus of this kind, as shown in FIG. 1, in which articles are automatically collected by the correspondence of a bar code attached on a picking container to the picking information stored in a main control device has been put to practical use. In the figures are shown, a main control device 30, control devices 33a, 33b, supply devices 19a, 19b, a picking container 10, a bar code 31, a bar code reader 32, a route control section 34 for constituting a route setting device, a route setting actuator 14, transport route 22, 24, 25 comprising conveyors, etc. that constitute transport means for transporting picking containers, a picking line 22, a missing line 24 and a repacking line 25.
The main control device 30 has stored therein picking information B such as the container number for each of the picking containers, kind and number of articles to be picked in each of the picking containers, etc. The picking container 10 is provided with the bar code 31 corresponding to the container number. When the picking container 10 is transported on the picking line 22 and arrives at an inlet for a group of supply devices for supplying articles to the picking containers 10, the bar code reader 32 reads the bar code on the picking container 10 and transmits container information A to the main control device 30. Upon receiving the container information A, the main control device 30 designates the supply device 19a which supplies articles to the picking container 10 based on the container information A and the previously stored picking information B and sends supply instruction Da including a timing information for article supply calculated based on the conveyor speed, position for the supply device, opening length of the picking container, etc. to the control device 33a of the supply device 19a. The control device 33a generates supply instruction D (Da) based on the received picking information Ba to actuate the supply device 19, by which articles are supplied from the supply device 19a to the picking container 10. A sensor 20a disposed adjacent to the article supply port of the supply device 19a monitors the actual supply value of the articles and if it does not agree with an instructed supply value, a result information E (Ea) including the information for the lacking of articles is fed back from the control device 33a to the main control device 30. A picking container having completed a series of picking is conveyed along a predetermined path, whereas if lacking of articles or excess supply is resulted, the main control device 30 sends a route information R to the route control section 34 based on the result information E (Ea, Eb). Upon receiving the route information R, the route control section 34 generates a route setting instruction R to actuate the route setting actuator 14 thereby displacing the picking containers resulting in the lacking of articles or excess supply to the missing line 24 which is the path different from that for the picking containers having picked articles exactly and distinguishing it as the article missing container so that it can be processed separately.
In this way, in the conventional picking apparatus, after the container number has been read once at the inlet of the group of supply devices, since it is tracked by the main control device with no external information input, it is ordinary that the picking containers are transported in the identical order, at the identical speed and along the identical path. Therefore, an identical time is required for the article collection both in the case of picking articles of one kind and of a small number of pieces and in the case of picking articles of various kinds and many number of pieces. Since a plurality of picking containers are tracked at the same time, the information processing in the main control device is complicated to extremely increase the load on the computer of the main control device.
There has been an apparatus in which a bar code reader is disposed on every inlet for each of the supply devices for designating as to whether the articles may be supplied or not from the main control device every time the picking container reaches the inlet for each of the supply devices, but this greatly increases the number of bar code readers disposed and also increases the duty of the main control device.
Also, in an apparatus adapted to change the transport route when supply of designated articles has been completed at the initial stage in the group of the supply devices and bypass the remaining supply devices, the duty on the main control device is increased.